There was a moment during the second-half timeout in the second half of the ACC tournament's opening game that was telling for NC State and its star freshman point guard/potential Knicks draft target Dennis Smith Jr.

As the players who were just on court sat on stools in front of the bench, a few teammates and program personnel huddling around them were not paying attention to coach Mark Gottfried. Instead, their eyes, along with most of those in attendance, were trained on the videoboard above center court at Barclays Center, which was showing highlights of Smith going off in the Wolfpack's signature win of the season at Duke on Jan. 23.

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Smith went off for a season-high 32 points that night, but the win over the rival Blue Devils must seem a blur six weeks later after Tuesday's 75-61 loss to Clemson ended the Wolfpack's season, Gottfried's coaching tenure and in what is assumed to be Smith's one-and-done career in Raleigh.

With Tuesday's defeat, NC State (15-17) finished the season 1-10 since that Duke game, along the way announcing the firing of Gottfried, who stayed on to finish the season. This is the same Gottfried who took the Wolfpack to the NCAA tournament four times in the previous five years, including two trips to the Sweet 16. When your program has two national titles in the last half century and you share the Triangle in North Carolina with the Tar Heels and Duke (a combined nine titles in the same time), sometimes there can be no ceiling on expectations.

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Smith, the ACC Freshman of the Year and projected single-digit pick in draft, didn't particularly light up the New York stage on Tuesday. No, you'll have to look up those Duke highlights for the real skinny on Smith, the highest rated recruit for NC State in at least two decades, according the the Recruiting Services Consensus Index.

A player who averaged 18.5 points, 6.3 assists and 1.9 steals per game during the season, Smith scored a season-low seven points on 3-for-12 shooting and added eight rebounds and three assists in 36 minutes. Some of that was due to Clemson's controlling the pace and denying him in the halfcourt.

"I thought we kept him out of transition a good bit. He's dynamic in the open floor," said Clemson coach Brad Brownell, whose team faces No. 5 seed Duke in a second-round game Wednesday at 2 p.m. "Whether it was just making shots or good shots around the rim so we didn't have long misses that led to run-outs and open-court play for him, I just think he's a terrific player. When he gets a full head of steam, you can't guard him with one player."

It seemed as if Smith was going through the motions at times knowing this could well be his last game for the Wolfpack. He missed his first six shots, finally hitting a jumper from just beyond the foul line with 46 seconds left in the first half.

"Dennis never really got going," Gottfried said. "I thought Clemson did a good job of kind of packing it in there on him, taking away some driving opportunities for him."

Jaron Blossomgame. (Mary Altaffer/AP)

Conversely, Clemson graduate senior forward Jaron Blossomgame may have helped his draft status, scoring 14 of his 18 points in the first half as the Tigers built a 39-28 lead. After getting his degree last season, Blossomgame chose to play out his final year of eligibility after nearly testing the NBA waters.

Although not tangible in Tuesday's box score, Smith's gifts are evident. There were moments of dribbling flourishes that left Clemson defenders a step behind. The athleticism and quickness are striking and are ready for the next level. He just dealt with a difficult year, along with his similarly young teammates and lame-duck coach, as he transitions there.

"Unfortunately, for Dennis, just kind of the way it fell this year, there's a lot of inexperience around him," Gottfried said. "That's hard. He's inexperienced. You've got inexperience everywhere. That made it really hard on him as the quarterback of a team to play with so many young faces."